Player Profile - Michael Mizrachi
February 17, 2007 - Deanna Goodson
The Grinder was born on January 5, 1981 in Miami, Florida. He currently makes his home in Hollywood, Florida with his wife, Aidilay "Lily" Elviro Mizrachi, herself a poker player, and their two children, Paul William and Julie Malka.
He has a fraternal twin, Eric Mizrachi, who's also a pro poker player. So, too is his older brother Robert. Robert actually got Michael started on the road to poker success. The youngest Mizrachi boy, Daniel, happens to be a professional magician. Maybe someday he'll join the 'family business' too.
Mizrachi is fluent in Hebrew and wanted to be a doctor while growing up. However, he eventually dropped out of college to play poker full-time...and has been quite successful at it. He started playing small stakes poker online and moved up through the ranks quite quickly. Mizrachi has said that online play, 'forced him to adjust to many different styles of play because of the wide variety of players it exposes you to.'
In 2004, Michael participated in the WSOP for the first time. He placed 11th in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Event, but his competitive nature kicked in. Eleventh wasn't good enough for this driven high achiever. He wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than first place.
He placed second later that year in the Pot Limit Hold'em Tournament at the California State Poker Championships. At the World Poker Open in January of 2005, Mike made his WPT debut. He finished fifth at the Gold Strike Casino, earning over $288,000 for his efforts and gaining much respect. Even Daniel Negreanu, the winner of that Main Event, noticed Michael's confidence and skill at the table.
Mike, who got his start playing online poker like his brother, Robert, earned the moniker "The Grinder" because he keeps grinding away until he wins. His work ethic is amazing. 2005 proved to be a great year for Mizrachi. He won the LA Poker Classic Main Event and took home almost $2 million dollars and placed eleventh at the WPT World Championship III in April at the Bellagio.
At the WSOP in 2005, he tied a record with seven cashes. He won money in Pot Limit Omaha, Omaha Hi-lo and No-Limit which shows that he's a diverse player who can translate his skills in NLHE to just about any game he sits in on.
As good as 2005 was, 2006 was so much better for The Grinder. In 2006, he was the Cardplayer Player of the Year. He won the WPT Borgata Poker Open, finished ninth in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, placed third in the WPT Battle of Champions, cashed in two WSOP events and made bank in just about every other tournament he entered.
So far, in 2007 Mizrachi placed tenth at the Borgata Winter Open $5,000 NLHE event, 6th at the WSOPC Tunica Event and took 18th place at the LA Poker Classic NLHE Shootout.
To date, Mizrachi has earned well over $5 million in tournaments throughout the world. You can find him online at Absolute Poker.
Editor Note: Want to take The Grinder out of a tournament? At Absolute Poker you just might get your shot. Mizrachi participates in the site's Pro Bounty Tournaments. Sign up to play at AP.com today and get a 100% deposit bonus.
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